Chapter 820: You Should Be Thanking Me

Myriad Beasts Sect, Ling Sect, and Tianxing Sect watched the bloody, dramatic reversal unfold before their eyes. More than a few people sighed and shook their heads in silence.

They had now seen firsthand just how bloody the struggles of these powerful factions could become when power and profit were at stake.

They were also quietly glad they did not have to live like this themselves.

Up in the trees, Misty Pavilion's people likewise watched coldly, truly standing apart from the affair as though merely enjoying a spectacle.

Their strength might not even surpass that of the people fighting below, yet somehow they gave the impression of looking down upon a swarm of ants.

"Ninth Uncle!"

A Qiyun Sect disciple shouted, his voice filled with grief.

Taishu Shanyue understood.

Of course he understood what the man meant.

They could not hold on any longer. No amount of stubborn pride would change that. If they kept relying on sheer courage and fought to the bitter end, annihilation was the only outcome.

"Withdraw!" Taishu Shanyue roared in anguish, finally giving the order to retreat.

His right hand clenched around empty space.

An invisible giant hammer seemed to form in his grasp. As he swung it, thunder exploded through the air, forcing back the men surrounding him. He immediately shot away.

The few remaining Jin cultivators fled in panic.

Naturally, they ran toward whichever direction offered the least resistance.

That was the sector held by Zijin Cave.

Only around a hundred Jin cultivators remained. Victory was already within reach. How could the surrounding attackers willingly let them escape?

Someone immediately shouted, "After them!"

Seeing everyone surge into pursuit, Yan Li made no move to follow. Instead, he shouted, "Do not pursue a cornered enemy!"

He raised a hand and gave a signal.

Below, Zijin Cave disciples who had been briefed beforehand began calling out under the lead of those in the know.

"Do not pursue a cornered enemy!"

"Do not pursue a cornered enemy!"

The warning passed outward layer by layer.

Those who had already begun pursuing instinctively slowed and kept glancing back.

When they saw it was Zijin Cave telling everyone not to chase, Xiaoyao Palace and Lingjian Mountain stopped first. They were allied with Zijin Cave to begin with.

Then the people of Qi and Wei also stopped for reasons they themselves could not quite explain.

They had followed Zijin Cave here without understanding why, fought an inexplicable battle, and still had not fully figured out the situation. But they all knew Zijin Cave must understand more than they did. If Zijin Cave was shouting this now, there had to be a reason.

That brief delay was enough.

There was no point chasing anymore. Jin's remaining forces had seized the opportunity and fled far into the distance.

Truthfully, even Taishu Shanyue, who heard the shouts faintly behind him and glanced back, could not understand what had happened.

His enemies had been on the verge of annihilating them.

They had been on the verge of seizing everything in Jin's hands.

And yet they had simply let them go?

What the hell did that mean?

For no apparent reason, Yan, Wei, and Qi had followed Zijin Cave here.

For no apparent reason, they had followed Zijin Cave into battle.

And now, for no apparent reason, they had followed Zijin Cave in letting the enemy escape.

With the battle finally over, everyone at last had time to ask what exactly was going on.

Xiaoyao Palace Elder Shan Hai was the first to come question Yan Li. "Yan Li, what exactly are you doing?"

Yan Li looked utterly unconcerned. "What am I doing?"

The men presiding over the various states gathered around, all looking for an explanation.

Shan Hai pointed toward the direction in which Jin's people had fled. "Stop pretending you don't understand. We already had them. Why did you tell everyone not to pursue?"

Yan Li looked surprised. "If you wanted to chase them, could I have stopped you? I'm the one who finds this strange. I told Zijin Cave not to pursue them. I never told any of you not to. Why did all of you stop too?"

The entire group fell silent.

Now that he put it that way...

It actually did seem to be exactly what had happened.

Yan Li clicked his tongue in mock amazement. "Who would have thought? Apparently I, Yan Li, now possess enough prestige to command all of you."

"Enough nonsense!" Shouzheng Pavilion Elder Yao Xianding of Wei snapped. "Don't treat us like we're blind. We all saw it. Your Zijin Cave people had no intention of stopping them just now. You deliberately loosened the gap and let them escape! Yan Li, what trick are you playing?"

Yan Li gave a cold laugh and beckoned.

A disciple carrying a bundle on his back came over and turned around.

Sword light flashed in Yan Li's hand.

The bundle split open.

Instead of Spirit Seeds, loose earth poured out in a clattering stream.

Everyone had assumed the bundle contained Spirit Seeds.

No one had expected it to be filled with dirt.

They exchanged looks, understanding even less than before.

Yan Li sheathed his sword and chuckled. "Now that we've taken this place, once the exit opens we can leave whenever we want. So I might as well stop hiding it from you. Zijin Cave had terrible luck this time. After all this effort, we barely collected any Spirit Seeds at all."

"As for the reward for first place, I've given up on it. Since there's no benefit in this for us anymore, why should I keep sending Zijin Cave disciples to die for nothing?"

"Stop them? Fight desperately to stop them? I'd have to be sick in the head!"

The others finally understood.

Tianhuo Sect Elder Qian Fucheng said heavily, "If you have so few, then you should have stopped Jin all the more. Taking what they carried would increase your harvest."

Yan Li gave a derisive laugh. "Increase it for what? Are all of you going to let me keep the whole lot? Once everyone divides it up, wouldn't my share still amount to practically the same thing?"

That was when everyone truly understood.

This old bastard had no hope of doing well himself, so he did not want anyone else doing well either.

Shan Hai suddenly reached out and ripped open the bundle on the back of another Zijin Cave disciple.

Dirt poured out of that one too.

Yan Li shot him a sidelong glance and warned, "What are you doing? Keep your hands off my people, or don't blame me for turning hostile."

Shan Hai and Chu Fengping both darkened.

The three Yan factions were allied and intended to secure their ranking together. If Zijin Cave's harvest was truly this poor, it would drag down Yan's overall result. How could the other two be pleased?

They also understood Yan Li's thinking more clearly now.

The reward earned through their joint ranking would still be divided according to each faction's individual contribution. The more one contributed, the more one received.

Even if they seized Jin's Spirit Seeds and divided them, Zijin Cave's proportional contribution would not improve much. Yan Li had no reason to keep sacrificing his own disciples just to benefit everyone else.

And naturally, he was even less interested in helping Xiaoyao Palace and Lingjian Mountain profit.

The faces of the Han and Song contingents turned black.

They cursed Yan Li to die a miserable death.

Jin had battered them badly and cost them enormous losses. They had finally been on the verge of avenging themselves, only for Yan Li to let Jin escape.

Xuanbing Sect Elder Liu Xinggao asked heavily, "Yan Li, how did you know fighting had broken out here?"

Yan Li chuckled. "I happened to have an informant planted around here. Don't bother asking who. I won't tell you."

Dale Mountain Elder Cao Bing gritted his teeth. "If you didn't want Jin's Spirit Seeds, why the hell did you drag us all over here to fight? Those disciples died for nothing! Was this your so-called 'very good thing'?"

Yan Li immediately fired back, "Cao Bing, is there something wrong with your head? Take a good look at where you're standing!"

Where?

What did he mean, where?

Everyone turned their heads and looked around.

They were in the ancient forest.

Gradually, realization dawned.

Cao Bing fell silent.

Yan Li pointed a finger at him and scolded, "The exit! We control the exit now! The moment it opens, we can leave whenever we wish. We no longer have to hide outside and watch other people's expressions."

"With an opportunity this good sitting in front of me, was I supposed to waste it instead of seizing it as quickly as possible?"

"If that isn't something very good, then what is?"

"And you actually blame me?"

"I think all of you should be thanking me!"

Now everyone understood.

So that was why this bastard had rushed over here in such a hurry.

And it truly was a good thing, not a bad one. It had ended the uncertainty that had tormented them while they hid outside without knowing how they would ever get through the blockade.

Yan Li then turned toward Han and Song. "Brother Shi, Brother Cheng, you two should be thanking me even more, shouldn't you?"

He even winked cheerfully at them.

At first, the people of Han and Song did not understand. They assumed he merely meant that he had arrived in time to save them.

Then they saw that suggestive wink.

Realization struck.

A cold sweat nearly broke out over them.

Old Yan Li could have waited until Jin, Han, and Song had nearly exhausted one another before intervening.

He could have annihilated all three sides in one stroke and seized their Spirit Seeds with ease.

Put that way, shouldn't Han and Song indeed be thanking him?

The resentment they had felt toward Yan Li for ruining their revenge immediately vanished.

If he had not deliberately ruined things, the two states might no longer have been standing here at all.

The faces of the people from Yan, Wei, and Qi, however, darkened almost simultaneously.

They understood Yan Li's meaning too.

This old bastard had no hope of profiting himself and therefore refused to let everyone else profit either.

Afterward, the gaps left by the battle were more or less filled, and a new group of people took over the task of waiting around the exit for prey to come to them.

The overseas demons and monsters remained targets.

So did Jin's surviving remnant.

Everyone still coveted the Spirit Seeds held by those two groups.

Han and Song were the most uneasy.

After this battle, their manpower had once again fallen by more than half. If Yan, Wei, and Qi joined forces against them now, the consequences were easy to imagine.

The two states that were slaughtering one another outside the Secret Realm now clung firmly together inside it, guarding against danger.

Quite a few Zijin Cave disciples untied the bundles on their backs and shook out the dirt inside.

After that, only a small number of bundles still appeared to contain Spirit Seeds.

While observing everyone's reactions, Yan Li murmured to a trusted disciple beside him, "Make sure the goods are hidden properly. Don't let anyone see through it."

The disciple answered quietly, "They've all been divided up and hidden against our bodies. It won't be easy to discover."

Yan Li nodded and sighed with emotion.

At last, it was done.

He had had no choice but to conceal the true number of Spirit Seeds in his possession. The entire chain of shameless maneuvers he had just carried out had been instructed by Niu Youdao.

Now that it had worked, even Yan Li had to admit he was impressed.

This was the first time in his life he had conned, bluffed, and deceived people from beginning to end like this.

One trick after another, linked together without pause.

And somehow, it had gone so smoothly that he had manipulated this entire crowd in the palm of his hand.

Of course, concealing the number of Spirit Seeds was meant to prove that he had almost none.

That, in turn, would make it easier to hand them secretly to Niu Youdao afterward without arousing suspicion.

Just then, Shan Hai and Chu Fengping approached together.

The moment they arrived, Chu Fengping asked bluntly, "Yan Li, why do I get the feeling you're hiding something?"

Yan Li smiled. "What makes you say that?"

Chu Fengping said, "Even if you don't have many Spirit Seeds yourself, if we'd destroyed Jin, Han, and Song and taken what they had, we'd be guaranteed a place in the top three. You'd still receive a share. Stirring everything up the way you did simply doesn't make sense."

Yan Li looked disdainful. "What top three? If I can take first place, why should I care about merely placing in the top three?"

The two men exchanged startled looks.

Shan Hai probed, "What do you mean?"

"I don't have many Spirit Seeds in my hands." As Yan Li spoke, he extended one palm and slowly clenched his five fingers. "But if I have a way to get what Jin is carrying, would the two of you be willing to split the reward for first place equally with Zijin Cave?"

The two exchanged another look, suspicious and uncertain.

Chu Fengping said, "Enough empty talk. Give us something real."

Yan Li smiled slyly. "I already told you. I planted an informant around here."

Both men instinctively glanced around, not understanding what he meant.

"Stop looking everywhere." Yan Li suddenly dropped the next sentence. "My informant isn't here anymore. He left with Jin."

The two froze.

Then, in the same instant, understanding struck both of them.

Their spirits lifted.

A strange light appeared in Chu Fengping's eyes. He asked urgently, "Old fellow, are you saying you can find where Jin's survivors fled?"

Yan Li nodded slightly. "Using everyone else's hands, we've already crippled Jin. Now the three of us can finish them off easily ourselves."

"If we can swallow the whole prize ourselves, why split it with anyone else?"

[End of Chapter 820]